I love "Roots"! I think my favorite thing is the arrangements are, across the board, awesomely fun and cool. (And risky - "Truth No. 2" may be the first time I've heard an a cappella country song succeed by being deliberately, over the top twangy, instead of avoiding the dreaded twang.) Yeah, lots of professional help there, but it's hard to complain when Deke Sharon and Tom Anderson both turn out such amazing work! "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" is a particular standout for me - so infectious!

Also, the album has a lot of personality to it. It's not terribly cohesive as a whole unit - very much a collection of songs rather than an "album" - but every song is really enjoyable, and furthermore, every song just screams "Divisi". I'm reading Pitch Perfect right now, wonder how that'll color my impression of it.

Congrats to everyone involved on this CD... I love it...
You ladies are incredible, setting the bar so high... I'm just glad I've gotten the opportunity to witness the evolution of DVC… This CD is great!

Congrats to the women of Divisi and everyone else who worked on this project; once again the review recognizes the hard work and sick talents y'all brought to bear on this album. *applause*

One thing I just want to mention ... Jonathan's review talks about the background syllables in "Mama Who Bore Me" being "Joan Jett." They're not. They're just nonsense "guitar" syllables: "jone jats gi jone jaddat," etc. ("Jun" and "zhun" - and anything else starting with "zh," for that matter - make me want to harm myself and others.)

Jonathan, of course, had no way of knowing that. It never occurred to me as I was arranging the piece (about a year ago) that the backs there sounded like "Joan Jett." But the last time I listened to the piece - literally just the most recent time I listened to it, which was maybe a week ago - I thought: hey, that sounds like they're saying "Joan Jett." And I had the same reaction as Jonathan: that sounds clever, but there's a cost to the cleverness, and I don't think it pays off like it would need to if I'd done it on purpose.

So, I can't take credit for the cleverness of putting "Joan Jett" in backing parts on a rock tune. But I did want to clear my name, as it were, on the flipside issues that Jonathan raises (which I think are well taken).

I've mentioned this a few times before, but this seems a good example to do it again. Anything that can be considered a "syllable" can become Buffalaxed very easily, intentionally or not. Nonsense aside, careful enunciation of written letter combinations become "words", no matter what language they are in. Even no language.

Use written syllables as an initial guide or shape, but mutate it into something you can't actually spell as you learn to perform it. "Jhhxx∂ß∑œnnn dzhøøømmt" would probably have not been confused with "Joan Jett" (which I heard as well), and might have made a better "guitar" attitude at the same time.

-B

Bill Hare Some dude who records and mixes people who can't play instruments. http://www.dyz.com

Obviously, its the just opinion of the reviewer, but the syllables in 'Mama Who Bore Me' never bothered me. I've been stunned by the song since I saw Divisi do it in the ICCA, and I think someone ought to by Tom Anderson a beer for having arranged it. It's incredible!

That said, a HUGE congrats to Divisi on this album. I'm a stubbornly mixed-group guy, and I think that Rebecca Christie hit the nail on the head when she said :

You never feel the lack of male singers — in fact, I was often relieved at their absence, as if men would have weighed this album down and kept it from reaching such heights.